List of Individuals Impeached by the House of Representatives

Fast Facts

“The President, Vice President and all Civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”— U.S. Constitution, Article II, section 4

The Constitution gives the House of Representatives “the sole Power of Impeachment” (Article I, Section 2) of federal officers and gives the Senate “the sole Power to try all Impeachments” (Article I, Section 3). In the constitutional procedure of impeachment and removal, the House serves in the role of a grand jury bringing charges against an officer suspected of “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors” (Article II, Section 4).

Since the House initiates this procedure, it also appoints impeachment managers to conduct the case against the officer in the Senate proceeding. From the early 20th century forward, the preferred method of selecting managers has been by a House Resolution naming the number and the persons of the committee of managers. In some instances, the House has, by resolution, fixed the number of managers and authorized the Speaker to appoint them. Managers also have been elected by ballot of the full House with a majority vote for each candidate.1

Contemporary practice has given the Judiciary Committee jurisdiction over possible impeachments. Recent impeachments have included articles of impeachment in the resolution sent to the Senate, and impeachment managers have tended to be from the Committee.

Individual

Position

House Action/Charges

House Managers

Senate Trial

Result

William Blount

U.S. Senator from Tennessee

Impeached July 7, 1797, on charges of conspiring to assist in Great Britain’s attempt to seize Spanish-controlled territories in modern-day Florida and Louisiana

Found guilty; removed from office and disqualified from holding future office

Footnotes

1See Cannon's Precedents, Volume 4 §467.

2The original impeachment manager resolution, H.Res. 402 (72nd Cong., 2nd sess.), was followed by H.Res. 70 (73rd Cong., 1st sess.) which added Randolph Perkins and Ulysses S. Guyer as managers to succeed Fiorello LaGuardia and Charles I. Sparks, who had left the House at the end of the 72nd Congress (1931–1933). With H.Res. 93 (73rd Cong., 1st sess.), Lawrence Lewis and James E. Major were added as managers and Malcom Tarver resigned as a manager. These changes all occurred before the commencement of the Senate trial.